


Frender Drabbles

by DeckofDragons



Category: Futurama
Genre: Bender also looks good in Fry's jacket, Bender is kinda encouraging for once, Bender looks good in a suit, Bender's grumpy but he loves his meatbag boyfriend, Crossdressing, Cuddling, Drabble Collection, Fluff, Fry wears a dress, I take requests for these, Love Note, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Sick Fic, Yearning, cuddling for warmth, salt about proposition infinity, tags to be updated as I go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:21:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 10,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28709619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: A place to put my Frender drabbles.I take requests for these.
Relationships: Philip J. Fry/Bender Rodriguez
Comments: 22
Kudos: 53





	1. Heater

**Author's Note:**

> I have multiple small ideas that are too short for their own fics so I'm doing them like this.

Robots didn’t need to be kept warm even in the winter because for the ones the cold affected them at all, it was positively – helping them run more effectively or something. And thus, naturally an apartment building built specifically to house them lacked central heating. Fry had gotten around this with a space heater. Which had been working great up until sometime last night. When exactly it had stopped working was hard to say but it had been freezing in here ever since he’d woken up.

Crouching before it, Fry smacked its side. He only succeeded in hurting his hand though. Despite that, after shaking it off, he smacked it again because that always worked when the TV started acting up. … Still nothing though. He’d even _triple-checked_ to make sure it was plugged in – he’d made that mistake a couple times in the past with various appliances.

“It’s busted,” he said he straightened. He turned to frown at Bender lazing on the couch watching TV, totally unaffected by the cold and uncaring of Fry’s suffering. “Can you fix it?”

“Do I look like a repair bot to you?” Bender barely even looked up from the TV. The _least_ he could do was show a bit of sympathy. … Though he was Bender, expecting sympathy from him was often unwise _and_ he was a robot so he couldn’t feel the cold thus there was no way he understood what Fry was going through.

“No but… I was hoping you could fix it anyway.” Shivering, Fry pulled his arms into hug himself. Was it just his tolerance for it waning or was it getting colder?

“I could bend it for you. I doubt that’ll fix it though.”

“Yeah, that’d probably only make it worse, huh?” Maybe Fry could go the Planet Express building, it should still be warm there, right? But that would involve going out into even worse cold and it was their day off, what kind of chump went into work on their day off to keep warm? Not him, that was for sure. “So… I guess I’ll just have to deal with it for a few days until I can buy a new one.” Normally he spent his paycheck on fun things but this cold was unbearable.

With a sigh, he left to retrieve his blanket from his bed. Back in the living area, he sat on the couch and huddled in it in as tight a ball as he could. Better but… this was going to be a long few day until he could buy another space heater. At least living in the future meant it would come almost as soon as he ordered it. Not that that was much condolence right now when he was so cold his teeth were chattering.

“All right fine meatbag, come here,” Bender angrily cut into his misery.

“Huh? What?”

“I said come here.” Bender gestured for him to scooch closer. “I’ll help keep you warm if it means you’ll stop looking so miserable, it’s annoying.”

Unsure of what else to do, Fry partially freed himself from the blanket to scooch a little closer and then a little more. … Bender seemed to be radiating warmth. “I… didn’t know robots ran so warm.”

“I had a heater installed in me a little while ago because I thought it might be useful.”

Not one to question good fortune, Fry pressed himself closer. Pulling the blanket with him so it’d still cover him, he wrapped his arms around Bender’s middle and cuddled into his side as close as he could physically get. It was immediately _so_ much warmer. “Thanks!”

“Eh whatever.” Bender’s arm snaked around Fry almost as if to hold him there but really, he probably only did it because where else would he put his arm with Fry cuddling into his side like this?

“What did you think it might be useful for?” Because there was no way he’d thought to install it to keep Fry warm, right?

“Just stuff. Now shut up and watch TV, the show’s starting.”


	2. Only Because I Love You

Fry was acting weird, not nearly as talkative or active as usual and moving all slow and sluggish. It was almost like he was severely hungover but he hadn’t gotten even a little drunk last night and it grew worse as the day went on instead of better. It reached a peak when upon sluggishly standing up from the couch in the breakroom to start for home he wasn’t able to take even one step before falling over, landing flat on his face.

“Uh meatbag, you okay?” Bender asked because that was more than just not normal. It had to be a sign that something was wrong.

No response. Fry lay there on the floor like a dead fish. … What if he was dead? Humans were notoriously fragile so maybe just randomly falling over dead was a thing that could happen with them.

“Ah shit, Fry if you’re dead I swear I’m going to…”

Fry stirred awake with an unintelligible mumble as Bender grabbed his arm to flip him over. Thank goodness! Fry dying was not something Bender was even remotely ready to face. He’d have to one day but thankfully not today… hopefully not anyway.

“You’re not dying, are you?” Because he still _could be_ , right?

“Nah, I’m not dying, I’m just ill,” Fry said as he carefully pushed himself up into a sitting position. But he wasn’t standing up. “It’s nice to know you’re worried about me though.”

Bender scoffed. “As if. Why would I worried about you dying? Humans do that kind of thing all the time.”

“Because you love me.”

Well… “Fair point I suppose. Now what is it? If you’re not dying why are you acting all… like this?” Bender gestured down at him.

“I uh… I’m sick, pretty bad too. I think I’m running a fever, though I suppose it could just be really cold in here. But uh… you think you could help me get home? I’m not sure I can make it on my own like this.”

Bender frowned down at him sitting on the floor, looking thoroughly miserable, way too pale, and shivering despite the fact it was not even remotely what humans typically considered cold in here. Humans were truly way too fragile for their own good, how they’d managed to survive for so long was a mystery. But… “Fine, only because I love you though.”

“I love you too,” Fry said with the closest thing he’d had to a real smile all day as Bender bent down to pick him up.

Maybe Bender should shove him into his chest compartment, it’d make transporting him easier and make it possible to hide the fact that that was what Bender was doing. But he already had a few not small things stored in there and Fry was clearly in a weakened state, shoving him in so tight a space might make it worse. So… carrying him bridal style it was. Which did mean he couldn’t easily open the breakroom door though. Before he could kick it down, Fry opened it, problem solved.

Still shivering a little, Fry clung to Bender, pressing his entire face, which was far warmer than usual, into the side of Bender’s. “You feel really nice,” he whispered. “Thanks for being so awesome.”

“You’re very welcome.” Being called ‘awesome’ certainly made this task a bit better.

At first it was starting to look as if they wouldn’t encounter any of their coworkers but unfortunately both Amy and Leela were at the front doors, also about to leave. And they both spotted Bender before he could retreat.

“Aw, you guys are cute,” Leela said as if she had any right to say anything about it at all.

This was the exact thing Bender had been hoping to avoid them for because he wasn’t cute and didn’t need anyone thinking he’d gone cute and soft. Unfortunately, his angry glare wasn’t enough to daunt either of them, the fact that Fry was still pressing his forehead against Bender’s cheek certainly didn’t help him look any more intimidating. “He’s ill,” he said before Amy could say whatever inane thing she was thinking. “Fry, open the door.”

Fry mumbled discontentedly but did as he was told, allowing Bender to flee the scene without further conversation. Now all he had to do was make it home without anyone else he knew seeing them. Once there, he’d put Fry in bed and give him some water since humans needed it to live. And then tomorrow they’d be skipping work since Fry clearly needed the rest and his illness provided the perfect excuse to do so anyway. If anyone asked, Bender could say he was taking care of him, which well, judging based off how he was now probably wouldn’t be a total lie. Ugh, the things he had to put up with for Fry sometimes but… he _did_ love him so he’d deal with it for a little while.

“You owe me big after you get over whatever this is.”

Fry didn’t respond; he’d fallen asleep. Which was probably for the best but didn’t mean he’d owe Bender any less when he recovered.


	3. Nothing to do with Gender

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly a large part of the inspiration for this drabble came from the fact that Bender looks really good in a suit and the show never acknowledges that fact. So I had to do it via Fry realizing it and Fry ended up wearing a dress because I just like it when men are comfortable wearing dresses, also in their world that kind of thing would probably be much less noteworthy and the show again doesn't acknowledge that (as far as I've seen anyway, I haven't seen all of it yet because I'm moving pretty slowly through it).

Why Bender had suggested he wear a dress was a mystery and why Fry had agreed to try it was an even _bigger_ mystery. But here he was, staring at himself in his bedroom mirror, wearing a fancy red dress and uh… he didn’t hate it? It was certainly physically comfortable; his legs had never felt so free while he was still fully clothed. And he didn’t _think_ it looked bad or ugly on him. But…

“Are you sure it’s okay for me to wear this?” he asked Bender who was somewhere behind him also getting ready for the party.

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Uh… because men aren’t supposed to wear dresses.”

Bender scoffed. “It’s clothes, it’s got nothing to do with gender.” Fair point. This was the 31st century, not only had humanity made a lot of progress in that area on its own but mingling with various alien races with all their differences, including different views on gender and entirely different biology, made gender roles much less of a thing. It was one of the many great things about the future. … More like present, huh? Because Fry lived here, this was his _now_. So…

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s just clothes, it doesn’t matter. If I want to wear a dress to a fancy party I can and I will. So…” He spun around fast enough to make the skirt of his dress twirl outward a bit, a rather interesting sensation. “how do I look?”

They both froze as Bender turned to look at him too. He wore a classic suit with a bow tie and… it looked _really_ good on him, better than Fry ever would’ve thought. Handsome wasn’t typically a word that applied to Bender but it _certainly_ did now.

“Uh… it looks good on you,” Bender said, recovering faster than Fry.

“Thanks!” If Bender said he looked good then Fry was pleased. “And… you look really good too.”

“Of course I do.” Bender grinned smugly as he reached up to finish adjusting his bowtie. “Now let’s go, we’ll be the envy of everyone there.”


	4. Keep It

Fry’s room was a mess as always and as expected. Despite that Bender knew just where to look for what he’d come in here for: Fry’s discarded jacket. After double checking to make sure the door was still closed, Bender snatched it up from where it lay on the floor by the bed.

Why he’d started doing this, he didn’t know nor did he care to dwell on it as he pulled the jacket close. It was still a bit warm from when Fry had been wearing it. It smelled like him too, or at least it probably did, Bender didn’t have a sense of smell so what did he know? It was dirty too of course but so what? Their entire apartment was dirty.

Bender pulled it on. It didn’t fit quite right on his bulky body but it felt nice anyway because it was Fry’s jacket. … If he were ever caught doing this, he’d never be able live it down. Good thing that wasn’t likely to ever…

“Uh… hey Bender.”

He snapped around to see Fry, he’d frozen in place halfway through the door and was now staring at Bender. “Can I ask why you’re uh… um…” He trailed off as his face started to grow red.

“It’s not what it looks like! I was just uh…” Bender looked around, hoping to spot something that might inspire an explanation for this. There was nothing though of course, it was _weird_ and nothing could make it seem any less so.

“It looks good on you,” Fry blurted out. “I mean it’s uh… and um… You know what, I’m just going to go, I think. But um… you can keep wearing it or whatever if you want to and stuff.” With that he fled, almost slamming the door shut in his haste to escape.

He returned not even five seconds later. “I forgot my drink,” he said as he rushed over to his bedside table to grab what Bender had assumed to be just another empty soda can. He didn’t even glance Bender’s way before fleeing again.

As soon as he was sure Fry was gone for good this time, Bender let out a sigh of relief. Well, that hadn’t gone _quite_ as poorly as it could’ve. Fry had even said his jacket looked _good_ on Bender and that he could keep wearing it. Which to him meant he was just going to keep it in general because he could and because Fry had like four more, he could spare one. And there was no way Fry would bring it up even if he did have a problem with it because this was undoubtedly another one of those things neither of them were ever going to speak of again. It was better for both of them that way.


	5. Love you Lots

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I drew a thing for this one because I thought it would be cute and as a bit of an experiment.

Bender and Fry were banned from going on delivery missions together for a month. They’d been caught making out when they were supposed to be delivering a package _once_ and suddenly they could no longer be trusted to work together. Okay so maybe it had been a bit more than just making out so fair point especially since it had resulted in the package being stolen and ultimately destroyed, landing the whole company in trouble with the client. Which admittedly was the last thing the company needed right now but it was still dumb as far as Bender was concerned. It would’ve been fine if it meant neither of them had to work but nope, they were both still being sent out, just not together.

Which resulted in Bender lazing around the breakroom alone. Avoiding responsibility and any other work that might be given to him was great but less fun without Fry there too. It _sucked_ especially since nothing good was on TV and both Amy and Leela were off on the mission too, leaving him truly with no one to talk to and/or bother because Professor Farnsworth and Hermes would try to give him work to do if he showed his face around either of them and Zoidberg didn’t count. _Ugh_.

Just when it was starting to reach the point where he was sure he would go mad, the rattling sound of the landing pad doors opening filled the building. Bender shot up to his feet before immediately slowing his roll; he couldn’t appear too eager or desperate, he had a cool image to maintain. So sedately, he strode out of the break room and off towards the landing pad. He arrived just in time to watch Fry, Leela, and Amy exit the ship.

“Bender!” Fry called, running over to hug him.

He didn’t normally do that but Bender was always more than happy to hug Fry, in part because it made stealing his wallet even easier. Which he of course did this time. There had to be some cash in it, probably not much but even a little would do. “Hey meatbag.” Also though, it was good to see him again if for no other reason than because Bender had been bored out of his mind for the past few hours.

“I hate going on these missions without you,” Fry said as they withdrew. “They’re so much more boring especially since Amy always wants to listen to Leela’s voice of reason so I get outvoted, meaning we always do everything the not fun way. But uh… anyway, I got to go do some do some stuff real quick.” And with that he was rushing off before Bender could try to get another word in. Huh, weird.

“You guys are really cute sometimes,” Amy said, drawing Bender’s gaze back to her and Leela.

“Yeah, when they’re not being _weird_ ,” Leela added. She’d caught them doing a bit more than just making out a few times, some of which could indeed be classified as weird.

“You’re just jealous,” Bender said because it was true, “I can keep a boyfriend for longer than ten days and you _can’t_.”

She made an exasperated sound and rolled her eye before moving on. Amy went with her. Leaving Bender with the perfect opportunity to see how much of Fry’s money was now his. …

As expected, there wasn’t much, only a few small bills. But there was also a folded piece of paper with the words ‘TO BENDER’ written on it; Fry’s handwriting of course. Well, this was new and might explain Fry’s odd behaviour. Bender pulled it out and unfolded it.

It was probably the most disgustingly sweet and sappy message Bender had ever received. No wonder why Fry had been in such a rush to get to away. …

Bender glanced around the room, making sure no one else was around before folding the note back up and opening his chest compartment to place it inside. Way in the back, in the special hidden pocket with all his other sentimental valuables that held no monetary value, none of which he’d never willing admit to toting around. No one but him and Fry ever had to know such a note existed or that Bender was keeping it for forever.


	6. Shut Up and Start Having Fun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canonically Fry starts learning to play the holophonor because he wants to impress Leela but in a setting where he's gay I figured a possible reason he might start playing it was because he thinks it's cool and clearly likes playing music. That idea spawned this drabble/ficlet and I kinda just ended up having a message I want to say with it because the opportunity to do so was there.

“We should start a band,” Fry said, turning his head to look at Bender sitting on the couch next to him.

Bender barely paused in his fruitless channel surfacing to reply. “Why?”

“Because I know you like music and stuff and secretly want to be a folk singer.” Though did it still count as a secret when everyone knew now? “And I actually really like music too. I was even in band in high school, it was the only class I got an A in. Though uh… that was only because the teacher said she’d let me pass if I showed up to class but gave up ever trying to play anything.” Which sucked and still hurt sometimes because unlike with other things the teacher had given up on him much quicker than he’d been ready to give up on himself. “So I don’t really know how to play anything. But I’m sure I can learn if given a real chance.” Hopefully anyway. “It’ll be fun.”

“Two people isn’t enough for a band.”

Oh, hmmm… Fry hadn’t considered that. Heck he hadn’t considered this idea much at all, it had just kind of occurred to him so he figured he’d suggest it because it sounded like fun. “Well… I guess so. _But_ it could just start as the two of us and then if we ever feel like it, we could invite more people and become a proper band. We probably won’t make it big or anything but that’s not the point, right? So what do you say pal, want to start a band with me?” He’d probably decline but it didn’t hurt to ask, did it?

After a few seconds of silence, Bender shrugged. “Sure, let’s do. We’re keeping it a secret though, got it?”

“Of course! It’s more fun that way anyway.” That way they could surprise all their friends with it someday.

***

Despite Bender advising him against it, the instrument Fry chose to learn was the holophonor solely because it was ‘cool’. Bender couldn’t _really_ judge him for that when he’d chosen to starting learning the guitar a while ago in large part for the aesthetic of it. He wasn’t good at it because he’d never practiced often and had been keeping it a secret for so long but he was better than Fry was with his instrument so that gave him grounds to make fun of Fry during their ‘band practice sessions’. He didn’t take advantage of that right super often though because there was something kind of endearing about watching Fry be so excited about learning to play and trying so hard.

Predictably his progress was slow. And even if he never said anything about it, it wasn’t long before that obviously started to get to him. It was clear in the way his enthusiasm for their practice sessions waned and in the almost sad way he complimented Bender’s growing guitar skills that his slow progress was upsetting him more and more as time went on. Bender wanted to say something to reassure him but… how to even bring it up? … Lucky for him though, he didn’t have to.

“I don’t know if this whole band thing is really working out,” Fry said one afternoon as they settled down in his room to practice together.

“Nonsense,” Bender said as he popped open his guitar case to pull it out and hold in his lap. “It’s working great.” Leaning back in his chair a little, he put on a smile and stummed a happy cord in hopes of pulling Fry out of his dour mood. … It didn’t work.

“For you maybe.” Fry didn’t even open his holophonor case, just held it on his lap as he looked down at the floor between them instead. “You’re getting really good at playing the guitar. I uh… I still suck even _after_ taking proper classes. Maybe you were right and the holophonor’s too hard for me. Maybe I should try to learn something easier even if it is less cool. … Or maybe my band teacher was right and I’ll never be able to play anything well. Because I tried really hard back then too, the hardest I’d ever tried in school, and I still failed.” With heavy sigh, Fry placed the case on the bed beside himself. Before he could get up to leave or say anything else though…

“It doesn’t matter if your good at it.” Bender strummed a random cord as he started tuning the guitar.

“What do you mean? What would be the point of playing if I’m not good and have no hope of ever _being_ good?”

“For fun. If it’s fun and you enjoy it then that’s more than enough reason to keep playing.”

“But I uh… um… huh? I can’t think of an argument against that but there has to be one.”

“There’s not.” Guitar fully tuned now, Bender began playing random notes just because it was in his hands. “Heck, when you proposed this band idea you said that we probably weren’t ever going to get anywhere with it but that that wasn’t the point. You said it would ‘be fun’, remember?”

“Well uh… I guess I did say that, huh? But I thought that… I’d still make progress in learning an instrument.”

“You have. You were a _lot_ worse when we started.”

Fry finally perked up a little. “Really?”

“Yep, you were _terrible_ and now you’re only bad. So stop trying to improve or whatever and just go back to having fun so this whole band practice thing can start being fun again too. You being all mopey and depressed has really been killing the vibes lately.” This was their secret activity that they did together, it was supposed to be a good time and it was a lot less so when Fry was like that so he needed to stop so Bender could fully enjoy it again too.

Fry looked away again. “Well, uh… sorry about ruining it… I guess. Is it really okay for me to keep playing even if I’m bad though?”

“How many times do you want me to say it?” Bender was starting to get annoyed now. “It doesn’t matter if your bad, what matters is that it’s _fun_ so shut up and start having fun already. Or quit if that’s what you really want to do, I don’t care.” He did though and even as dumb as Fry was, the look he gave Bender said he knew that.

“Well… okay then. I’m going to quit trying to get better and instead I’m just going to have fun. Thanks for telling me that, you’re the best.”

“Damn right I’m the best.”


	7. Fry J. Rodríguez

They were going to get _married_. The thought still sent a thrill through Fry every time he thought of it. They didn’t have a date set and hadn’t even started properly planning it yet but it was going to happen sooner rather than later; they were engaged and it was wonderful. He’d never dreamed he’d be excited for such a thing but here he was.

“So when we get married, what are we going to do about our last names?” he asked as he swiveled his chair to face Bender because he was itching to talk about it in any capacity even if they were on a delivery mission. “Wait, do people even still change their last names when they get married?” With all the years it had been since Fry had woken up from cryo-sleep, he should probably know that by now but somehow it had either never come up or he’d never paid enough attention to remember when it had.

“Sometimes yeah, but not always,” Bender replied as he swiveled his chair too. “I like the thought of you taking my name though, it’ll mark you as mine.”

Before Fry could answer, Leela cut in without even turning to face them. “We couldn’t call him ‘Fry’ anymore if he did that. Well, technically we could but it wouldn’t be his actual name anymore.”

Bender frowned. “I keep forgetting that ‘Fry’ isn’t your first name. Why do you _go_ by your last name anyway?”

“Because in middle school I thought it would make me seem cooler if I went by ‘Fry’ instead because ‘Philip’ is a pretty lame name and secret agents always introduced themselves with their last name first and I wanted to be like them and then it just kind of stuck.” It had been so long since he’d last been addressed as ‘Philip’ he didn’t even respond to it anymore nor did he have any desire to.

“Wow, you’ve always been a huge nerd, huh?” Bender said with a snarky smirk as if he wasn’t also secretly a huge nerd.

“Pretty much yeah.” And he was old enough now to be proud of it because it meant he was having unashamed fun. “But if I’m changing my legal name anyway, I could also just change my first name to Fry.” At this point it might as well be his first name anyway. “I could be Fry J. Rodríguez.”

“Ooh, I like that sound of that.” Bender liked it too, meaning it was basically already decided as far as Fry was concerned.


	8. We Should Change It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Proposition Infinity should've been gay but it wasn't and I'm salty about it so I wrote this.

Did robots even do the whole marriage thing? It somehow hadn’t occurred to Fry that maybe they didn’t until just now when it was practically already too late. Well actually, it wasn’t too late, he could still change his mind and sell the ring but… he didn’t want to. Besides, he’d already convinced Bender to go on a moonwalk date with him.

Being on the moon was still pretty cool as far as Fry was concerned even if visiting whole other planets in entirely different solar systems was literally part of his job. It was cool because ever since he was a small child he’d always wanted to walk on the moon, just like he’d always wanted a robot for a friend. He had both now and so much more; he couldn’t be happier.

He turned his head to smile at Bender walking disinterestedly beside him, kicking up moondust with every step. Bender lifted his gaze to meet his, his expression shifting from bored to slightly confused. “Did I forget something? Like is it Valentine’s Day 2.0 or something and I didn’t get the memo?”

“Uh, no, why?”

“Because you insisted we go out here to walk around on the moon of all places and now you’re looking at me with those lovey-dovey eyes and it’s cute but that means this whole thing is some kind of special something to you, right? But I have no idea what it could be so out with it already, what’s this about?”

Fry should’ve predicted he’d be called out. Oh well though, it gave him the perfect opportunity to pop the question. “It is special to me but uh, not because of what day it is or anything like that but because… I have something important I want to ask you.” Swallowing back his nerves, Fry stopped walking, forcing Bender to do so too. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring box. “Will you marry me?” He flipped it open and held it out towards Bender.

Bender froze for a few seconds before reaching over to accept it. Not to put it on though, but instead to inspect it as if Fry would ever dare to get him a diamond ring that was anything less than the real deal. It wasn’t a super expensive one like Bender would’ve probably preferred but it was the best Fry could do and it still looked nice.

“Hmm,” Bender finally looked up from it and back at Fry. “It’s on the cheap side but not cheap enough to be low quality, so good job on picking it out. I’d say ‘yes’ but uh… we can’t get married. I’d thought you already knew that.”

Fry’s heart sank but… that was fine. They didn’t need to get married, they already lived together and stuff so really it would’ve just been a formality and reason to throw a party to declare their love. But still… “Why not? It’s fine that you don’t want to but…”

“Nah, I didn’t say I don’t want to. Gosh, I forget how dense you are sometimes. We can’t get married because it’s not legal, no one would do the ceremony for us or recognize us as legally married.”

“Oh uh… why is it illegal?”

Bender shrugged. “Just is. People are more accepting of robosexuals these days but there are still a lot of people who aren’t, enough that it’s still not legal. We could hold a sham wedding though if it really means that much to you. I wouldn’t mind that at all. Especially since it would spite all the assholes who hate that kind of thing.”

“But… gay marriage and stuff is legal now.” That was one of the great things about the modern age compared to the time Fry grew up in. “So is marrying aliens, I think since Kif and Amy are basically married, right? So why isn’t it legal for robots and humans to get married? That’s not fair at all.” People were supposed to be more tolerant these days but _this_ was a thing, how?

Bender shrugged. “That’s just how it’s always been.”

“Well… we should change it then.” Fry wasn’t normally one to suggest such a thing but this made him too mad not to. He was allowed to be gay but he wasn’t allowed to marry the love of his life because he was a robot, that was just plain bullshit.

“Uh… cool idea but I doubt we can.”

“No, we can. Back when I came from gay people weren’t allowed to get married and they changed that somehow so why can’t we change this?” Fry didn’t know how that had changed and as a gay man he should probably look it up one day to know the history of it and stuff but that could wait.

“Huh? I guess you do have a point. So sure, let’s make robosexual marriage legal. Or try to at least. If we succeed, I’ll marry you in celebration.”


	9. Is This a Date?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another request, first one being posted here even if it's still far too long to be considered a drabble. They asked for "It's maybe a little convoluted, but I'd love to see you write something involving Leela and Fry breaking up and Bender using the chance to whoo him and show him there's other people worth dating. It takes Fry a lot to realize what's going on so Bender tries to pull all the stops for Fry, finally convincing him with some grand gesture."

“Stop moping.”

Fry rolled over to look at Bender standing in the doorway of his bedroom. “What do you want?”

“I told you. I want you to stop moping. I’ve tried being nice about it, giving you your space and stuff but you’re _still_ moping and it’s starting to get annoying.”

“I’m doing it alone in my room though. So if it really bothers you, just _don’t_ come in here.” Especially since he hadn’t been invited.

Bender wasn’t budging though. In fact, instead of fucking off, he stepped further in. “It’s been almost a month now, it’s time to get over it.”

“How can I possibly get over it?” Leela had agreed to be his girlfriend only to turn around a few months later and say she didn’t feel ‘that way’ about him, that she’d been trying to for his sake but just couldn’t. Meaning she’d never actually been into him at all. How could Fry ever possibly recover from that? She insisted she loved him as a friend but… if she really did why had she led him on like that? It wasn’t fair.

“Just uh… ugh. Try dating someone else maybe? Like uh… Amy did when Kif broke up with her that one time. She got over that real fast, remember? You could try that too, I’ll help. Maybe it’ll even make Leela jealous, wouldn’t that be fun?”

“I can’t date anyone else though because I’ll never love anyone as much as I love Leela.”

“Now you’re just being dramatic.”

Maybe so but Fry didn’t care. He was in a rather dramatic mood. And Bender trying to pull him out of it was only making it worse so… “Just go away already. If me being sad is really that annoying to you then you shouldn’t…” He cut off with a yelp as Bender stepped closer to grab his wrist and yanked him partially off the bed.

“Come on, I know what’ll cheer you up.”

Fry was forced to scramble the rest of the way off the bed and to his feet or risk being dragged across the floor as Bender turned to leave while still tugging on Fry’s arm. He was tempted to hold his ground and refuse to leave but if Bender really wanted to physically force him out of his room, there wasn’t much Fry could do to stop him so he followed willingly for now. That didn’t mean he was going without compliant though.

“Look, I appreciate the thought but I don’t really…”

In the living area, Bender pushed Fry onto the couch, making him cut off again. “We’re watching TV like we used to.” He sat down right next to Fry. Grabbing the remote off the coffee table, he switched the TV on to of course _All My Circuits_. His favourite show. Fry’s too but he wasn’t in the mood for it or TV in general right now so…

When he tried to stand back up, Bender put a not subtle hand on his shoulder, holding him in place. Not hard but the threat for such was there.

“I’ll even share a beer with you.” Bender’s tone was causal as if he wasn’t forcing Fry to be here with him. He opened his chest compartment to pull out two beer bottles. One of which he handed to Fry after even opening it for him. “Better already, right?”

He didn’t willingly share his stuff often, refusing would likely only make him mad and well, the fact that he was serious enough about making Fry feel better _to_ share was rather nice. So, with a sigh, Fry accepted his fate. “I guess so,” he said as he relaxed back into the couch, lifting his feet off the floor to rest on the coffee table as Bender did likewise. Maybe he _was_ starting to feel a little better. It had been a while since they’d sat and watched TV together at home.

A few days later Bender had to drag him out of his room to make him stop moping again. This time he brought Fry all the way out the apartment and to the bar they used to hang out at. Leela didn’t like it so Fry hadn’t been here in while. Heck actually…

“We haven’t hung out outside of home in a while, huh?” he said as they settled at their usual table, sitting across from each other. “Like… just the two of us and no one else.”

“Yep, because you’ve been too busy being preoccupied with Leela to spend time with anyone else even your best pal.” Bender gave him a mildly annoyed look which well, Fry couldn’t blame him for, huh?

“Oh uh… yeah, sorry.” Fry hadn’t been being a very good best friend, huh?

“Eh, it’s whatever. You two tried the whole dating thing, it didn’t work out and now that you’ve broke up, you can finally move on from her. It’ll be like old times, just you and me except maybe _better_ because you’re not focused on wanting to date Leela anymore, right?”

“I don’t know, I still feel pretty focused on her and uh, wanting to date her. You think maybe she might change her mind eventually? Like maybe if I stop being clingy and stuff. Or uh… maybe if I try to be smarter or something?”

For some reason Bender seemed to deflate a little at Fry’s words. “No.” He sounded fine though and quickly recovered so it was probably nothing. “Face it buddy, you just don’t have what she’s looking for in a romantic partner.”

“Yeah… you’re probably right.” As sad as it was and as much as Fry didn’t want to admit it or believe it, he couldn’t deny that anymore. Even when he tried to his best to force it he just wasn’t what Leela wanted.

“I’m always right and you know it. Now no more talking about Leela, we’re here to have a good time and get shitfaced, got it?”

“I uh… you know what? Yeah!” Fry hit his fists on the table, making it rattle. “Let’s get drunk and have some dumb fun like we used to.” He could certainly use the distraction. And maybe Bender was right in general, maybe it was past time he at least try to start getting over Leela even if would be hard.

**A few weeks of Bender trying and failing to get Fry to notice him romantically later**

“Are you sure this a good idea?” Fry asked, leaning over the pilot’s chair as Bender started up the ship.

“It’s a great idea.” Bender brushed off his concern with a dismissive wave his one hand. “Now go sit down unless you want to fall over when we take off. … Nah actually on second thought, watching you fall over would be funny so feel free to stay standing.”

With a sigh, Fry went over to his usual chair and sat down to buckle up. “Yeah, but remember what happened last time we took the ship out for a joyride? We almost got fired. … We _did_ get fired actually. We’re lucky the Professor decided to hire us back on. He might not be so generous this time.” While Fry didn’t like working, this job did let him see other planets and he was getting pretty decent at flying the ship which was pretty cool, so losing this job would be less than ideal. Especially since he’d then have to look for a new one that would undoubtedly be far worse.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I made sure that won’t happen this time. _And_ I stole enough dark matter to completely fill the tank twice. So we could run her all the way out, refuel and still return with enough to fuel top her off again and hide that we ever took her out. Meaning no one will ever know about this so stop trying to be a killjoy.”

Fry didn’t have time to respond before the pilot’s console beeped, signaling that the ship’s engines had finished warming up. With an excited chuckle, Bender took off, he was getting rather good at flying the ship too.

As they exited Earth’s atmosphere, Fry let go of his doubts. Taking the ship out when they weren’t supposed to _was_ fun. And Bender, an expert at getting away with things he wasn’t supposed to do, was probably right; as long as they were careful, they wouldn’t ever be found out and thus no one else need ever know about this adventure of theirs.

“Where we going?” Because after how insistent Bender had been about dragging Fry out here after night fell for this, he had to have a cool destination in mind, right?

“Nowhere or anywhere we want, it doesn’t matter. It’s just you and me with the entire universe as our playground.” He made a grand gesture towards the cockpit window and the vast expanse of stars that could be seen through it. “So we can go wherever and do whatever the fuck we want.” Or that worked too.

“Uh… all right let’s go do something fun then.”

They spend the next few hours taking turns flying the ship around to random planets to see what sights they might have and occasionally messing with the locals – in Bender’s case, stealing from them sometimes too. With no one around to tell them to stop messing around or to be responsible or more careful or anything else of the sort, it was reminiscent of the first time Fry had been set free in a theme park but on a much larger and therefore more fun scale. The fact that he was with Bender made it even better.

Eventually Bender brought them to one of Jupiter’s many moons, the largest one according to the some of the signage. On it some rich person was hosting a fancy dance party of some sort. It was Fry’s idea to sneak in for a bit mostly because rich people’s parties were always fun to sneak into and because they always had fancy food and drink that if nothing else was often interesting to see and taste. The fact that Bender had brought along fancy clothes they could wear to make sneaking in even easier was odd but not surprising, he carried strange but often useful things with him all the time. But what _was_ surprising was his suggestion that they go for spin around the dance floor.

Fry had agreed to it because why not, it seemed like it could be fun. He’d figured that Bender had suggested it to use it as a way to move around the room more and pickpocket stuff off of more people. But while he was doing a little of that, it didn’t seem to be his main goal. Instead he seemed to be far more focused on actually dancing with Fry. Which, now that Fry thought about it, Bender had been noticeably more focused on him than usual during this whole outing. It was nice but… odd.

“Did you plan to come here to do this?” Fry asked once he was sure he was settled into their slow dance enough that he could continue to follow Bender’s lead while also conversing with him. How close they their bodies were made it a bit harder because… it was kind of distracting. Bender had been the one to teach him to dance like this – in another failed attempt to impress Leela a while back – so it was nothing new but still weird, not in a bad way though.

“Maybe.” Meaning ‘yes’ based off his teasing tone and the fact that if he hadn’t planned it, he’d have just said ‘no’ and possibly made fun of Fry for thinking such a thing.

“Why though?”

Bender groaned. “I swear you’re the densest guy I’ve ever met. It’s cute and funny most of the time but sometimes, like right now, it’s really frustrating.”

Fry stumbled and missed a step at being called ‘cute’. That wasn’t a word anyone had used to describe him in any way since he was a small child. And the context of it coupled with what they were currently doing made it seem almost… “Is this a date? Like… a date that’s supposed to be romantic?”

“Bingo! Thank you for _finally_ realizing, it only took you just about a hundred _not_ dates to figure what I’m trying to do.”

“Oh.” Fry looked away as his face grew uncomfortably warm. Had Bender really been trying to go on a date with him for a while now? Come to think of it ever since Bender had decided he was done with Fry moping about Leela he’d been taking him out of the house fairly often, going out of his way to make sure it was just the two of them too. And he’d mentioned multiple times that Fry can and should move on from her now and try dating other people. More like another person because hadn’t he more often than not phrased it as a singular? As if _maybe_ he wanted Fry to consider him for that role.

“Yeah. I can guess you’re not interested though, huh?” His tone edged with bitterness, Bender slowed their dance to a stop and started to pull away. “If you were, you’d have…”

“No, no!” Jerking back into motion, Fry pulled him close again. “Don’t stop, I’m having fun.” Bender wasn’t resisting so Fry took the lead in their dance. He was much clumsier and uncoordinated but whatever. Even if he didn’t know what to think about that revelation, he did know he didn’t want to stop dancing yet and even more he didn’t want Bender giving up and pulling away from him.

“So… you are interested?”

“I uh… uh… I’ve never thought about you that way before but… uh… Yeah. Yeah, I’m interested.” And saying that, even with how impulsive it was, didn’t feel wrong or like a lie. “This had been a… great date so far. Even if I only just realized that that’s what it’s supposed to be.”

“Good because getting invitations to this place was a real pain in the ass.”

“You mean we didn’t even actually sneak in?”

“Nope. Getting caught and kicked out would’ve made getting you to finally realize what I was trying to do almost impossible. So yeah, this was planned from the beginning. Or did you really think I carry around a fancy suit in your size for no reason?”

“Well, you might’ve. You do carry a lot of weird stuff around inside you all the time.”

“I guess that’s true.” With that Bender took the lead back, making the whole dancing experience much smoother and easier.

Fry was more than happy to let himself sank into the rhythm of it, matching Bender’s pace. He could consider what the new dimensions of their relationship was later as well as how they were going to tell the others if at all, they could just let them figure it out on their own. For now he was going to enjoy the rest of the time they had alone together for this date until they had to return the ship back to the Planet Express hanger.


	10. Friends With Benefits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had some more thoughts about Proposition Infinity that I combined with even more thoughts I had about it while writing the start of the previous "drabble" and that's where this drabble came from.

“I miss Kif.”

Bender turned his head to look at Amy lying in bed beside him, still naked, only partially covered by the blanket, and scrolling disinterestedly through her phone, intending to tell her to shut up because he didn’t care. And _really_ , who brought up their ex immediately after a friends with benefits hookup? But actually, he might be able to use this for his own gain. “You want to try to win him back?”

She didn’t take her eyes off her phone. “Yeah but… I don’t know how I’d do that. I tried calling him and stuff but he won’t answer. Well he did the first time I called but we didn’t really _get_ anywhere in our conversation. We just ended up having another argument which sucked.”

“What if I help you?”

Now she turned her head to look at him, her glare full of suspicion. “How? And more importantly _why_?”

She was right to be suspicious, he didn’t care about Kif and in fact found him pretty annoying and thus normally he’d never offer to help get them back together. But an idea had occurred to him, it might not work but it still could and thus was worth a shot. If she was up for it anyway. “We’ll pretend we’re dating and act all in love and super into each other and all that stupid sappy stuff. He’ll see and start to miss you and be jealous. And then when we eventually fake break up, and by that I mean I dump you, you act sad and he’ll come running back to you.”

“That might work. But _why_? What do you get out of it? Because I _know_ you wouldn’t do anything like just for me or anyone really. I need to know what you get out of it before I agree to anything.”

“There’s someone I want to make jealous.”

All the suspicion melted off her face to be replaced with extreme interest as she rolled over to face him more. “Oh, really? Who?”

Bender glared at her even though she didn’t seem to care. “It doesn’t matter and you don’t need to know.”

“It’s Fry, isn’t it? I know I’m right so don’t try to deny it. You’ve been in love with him for a long time. He’s just too dumb to realize it and everyone else is too… romantically blind, I guess you could say, to see it too.”

Bender still wanted to deny it because he didn’t want people knowing but she wouldn’t believe him if he did so… “Yeah, fine, it’s Fry.”

“Ha, I knew it. I always thought you two would get together but then Leela agreed to start going out with him. Which I don’t get at all because she’s still clearly not into him like that, she just wants to be to make him happy. It’s going to end in disaster for sure. But uh… you really thinking pretending to date me will make him jealous?”

“I don’t know. But other than not having the happiest relationship, Leela and Fry have also been having some issues lately so it might.” And hopefully would if Bender faked his part well enough. Would it be enough to get him what _really_ wanted though? Impossible to say but if nothing else it might at least be a step in that direction.

“All right. Let’s do it then. It might even be fun.”

**One only partially successful fake dating scheme later**

It was nearing midnight when Amy called. Bender would’ve been more annoyed if he’d actually been trying to sleep like he probably should’ve been instead of staring at the TV. There was nothing on though so he switched it off and answered.

“What do you want?” As if he didn’t already know what it was most likely was about. Their plan had always had a higher likelihood to work for her.

“It worked! Kif came over and we talked and we’re back together! So thank you!”

“You’re welcome or whatever, I really don’t care.” He’d put on the best performance of his life and Fry hadn’t seemed to care one bit that he was happy with another human. Nope, instead Fry had been _happy_ for him, ugh.

“Sorry it didn’t make Fry jealous. For a bit there I was really thinking it might. But hey, after Leela finally breaks up with him, if you two finally get together you can eventually marry him with no issue. So yay about that, right?”

“Hmm, I guess so, huh?” Also he’d be famous for helping finally legalize robosexual marriage. Any kind of fame at all was good, the fact that it was for an actual good cause was a bonus.

“Yep. But well, I got to go to bed now. Thanks again for helping me win Kif back. I wish you luck with Fry in the future. Bye!”

As Bender hung up, he stood up from the couch to head for the front of house since he should probably put himself in sleep mode too. But maybe Amy was right and all hope wasn’t quite lost. If/when Leela broke up with Fry, Bender could and definitely would take advantage of that opportunity.


	11. The Best He Could Hope For

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another request! "Here's a self indulgent request if your up for it lol .I personally a sucker for that sweet sweet yearning from afar. Perhaps bender with a hopeless crush on fry maybe?"
> 
> I hope this counts for the request, it's moments in which Bender is slowly realizing he has a crush that sets up for some yearning.

“What’s all this?” Bender asked as he gestured to boxes Fry had piled up in the middle of his room, making it seem even more of a mess than usual.

Fry sat in the midst of it struggling to open the biggest of the boxes with a pair of scissors that were obviously dull based off how much trouble he was having. “Comic books and a shelf to put them on. I found a site online that sells copies of old comic books from like the 90’s and 2000’s so I bought a bunch because I’m super far behind on everything.”

“Huh? I didn’t think you were the type to read.”

“I’m not. They’re mostly just pictures but they’re cool and…” He cut off with a small sound of surprise as he finally managed to brute force his way through the tape, making the unassembled bookshelf parts spill out onto his lap and floor. “Uh…” He looked back up at Bender. “Can you help me put this together?”

Bender would rather not but last time Fry had tried to assemble a piece of furniture alone he’d ended up breaking all his fingers on one hand and a couple on the other too somehow. He been such a big baby about it, Bender had been forced to bring him to the hospital to get it fixed. A much bigger hassle than just helping him put the bookshelf together so… “Fine, whatever but only because the new episode of _All My Circuits_ starts in an hour. And knowing you, you probably won’t have this finished in time to watch it if I _don’t_ help.”

“Uh, probably yeah. So thanks.”

As they set to putting it together Fry took it upon himself to tell Bender more about his new comics, what they were about and how into them he’d been back before he’d found his way to the modern age. None of it was anything Bender cared about, not even a little. But instead of telling him to shut up, he let him continue because… he kind of liked listening to Fry talk about things he was passionate about. It was dumb and there was no reason he should feel that way about it but… whatever, he never had to and never would admit to anyone.

~

Fry was always a late sleeper, especially on their day off, but it was past noon and thus starting to get ridiculous. So without even bothering to knock, Bender opened Fry’s bedroom door and poked his head in.

The lights were off and the blinds shut tight, making it almost pitch-black inside. Thankfully that was no issue for a robot. Bender could still clearly see Fry lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, meaning he was awake so…

“What’s up?” Bender asked as he stepped all the way in.

“Uh just... stuff.” Fry lifted a hand to make a halfhearted gesture. “Nothing you’d care to hear about. So don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine… eventually.”

If it were anyone else Bender would’ve left because normally, he didn’t care about other people’s problems. But… he didn’t like seeing Fry acting and sounding so despondent, it made him… sad and worried. So he walked over to stand by the bed and crossed his arms as he looked down at Fry. “What is it?”

Fry looked about as surprised as Bender felt about this feeling. “I uh… um… It’s my brother’s birthday today. I miss him. … We were never super close or anything but I still always got him something for it. Normally a gag gift or something really stupid. He always got me something similar for my birthday. It was like… a game; who could give the dumber gift? It was a lot fun. But… he’s long dead now and so is literally everyone else I knew back then. And… and… You probably don’t care, right?”

“You’re right, I don’t care _but_ go ahead and tell me about it anyway if it’ll make you feel better.” Bender even sat at the foot of the bed. He’d put up with this because despite his words and flippant tone he did care. More than he really wanted to admit even to himself but whatever, no one ever needed to know he’d somehow grown soft for a meatbag.

~

“One year,” Fry mumbled as he leaned heavily into Bender’s side, the only thing keeping him on his feet as they made their way down the sidewalk towards home. “I’ve been in the future for… one whole year now.”

“Yep, Happy New Year.” It had been quite the year, the best of Bender’s life for sure. This time, exactly a year ago he’d been planning to off himself on the morrow. But now, with an arm around Fry’s middle and Fry’s arm thrown around his shoulders, he couldn’t imagine anything he’d want to do less.

“It’s _awesome_! You’re awesome!”

“Yeah, I’m the greatest and don’t you ever forget it.”

Fry giggled like the drunk idiot he was. “I love you.”

Bender stumbled before catching himself and Fry. He froze as he turned his head to look at Fry, right up next to his – close enough for a kiss if he were so inclined. “You… really mean that?”

“Of course I do. You’re the greatest and my bestest best friend in the whole wide world… no _universe_.” Fry lifted his other arm in an attempt to make a large gesture towards everything around them but really just ended up flopping his arm towards the sky before letting it drop again.

“Oh uh… yeah.” Bender forced himself to look away and keep going. Of course Fry had meant that platonically, why had Bender’s first thought been that that wasn’t the case? And more importantly why was that realization such a disappointment? … Ugh, damn it!

Even with how short of a way it was, by the time they reached their apartment, Bender couldn’t deny to himself just how far he’d fallen. He wasn’t supposed to feel that way about anyone, _especially_ a meatbag. But… Fry was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He was kind, wonderful, entertaining, and all around a pleasure to hang out and do stuff with. _And_ he agreed that Bender was great, what wasn’t there to like? So…

“I love you too,” Bender said as he helped Fry into the apartment, pushing the door closed behind them with his foot.

“Awesome! Here’s to another year of being the bestest of best pals.” Fry chuckled, giving Bender an awkward hug before pushing away to stumble the two steps over to the couch and collapse onto it, sort of anyway, only his upper half ended up on it. Seeming immediately asleep, he started sliding off. Bender caught him before he hit the floor.

“Yep, best pals,” he said as he lifted Fry up with one arm to drape over his shoulder even as he already started towards Fry’s room. Best friends was probably the best he could hope for and thus he’d take it. It was enough… for now anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> With how inactive this fandom is, I'm not sure if anyone's gonna be interested but I'm open to drabble requests so if you read this and have one I encourage you to leave it in a comment below and I will get to it as soon as I can. I'd prefer it to be a Frender related request but honestly I'm open to doing general Futurama stuff too if anyone has a request like that. 
> 
> I WILL NOT do anything NSFW or explicitly kinky, Freela, or anything with Zapp Brannigan (assuming I get any requests at all, I highly doubt I'd ever get one involving him because I can't be only one who absolutely despises him but I'm just making sure because I hate him that much.)
> 
> I CAN do pretty much anything else as long as it's not super complicated.


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